


Penny For Your Memories

by Zekkass



Category: Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-22
Updated: 2011-12-22
Packaged: 2017-10-27 17:39:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/298355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zekkass/pseuds/Zekkass
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jowd still makes trips to Temsik Park to think back on the life he could have had. Cabanela finally asks him about it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Penny For Your Memories

**Author's Note:**

  * For [laughingpineapple](https://archiveofourown.org/users/laughingpineapple/gifts).



> This is set post-game, so MAJOR SPOILERS for anyone reading this. Ahem.
> 
> There's a hint of more-than-friends feelings from Cabanela, but it's basically gen - I hope you like it, and I wish you a Merry Christmas!

"What are you doing heeere, my friend?"

Jowd looks up from the crater, and offers Cabanela a friendly smile. "I should ask you the same thing."

Cabanela lifts his shoulders in a shrug, his hands in his pockets. "I thoought I'd come to check on this baby here." He gives a nod to the crater, and looks back at Jowd.

"We're not going to find anything," Jowd says, looking over at the fountain. He has to bite his tongue, and he knows Cabanela's sharp enough to spot when he's hiding things, but that's always been the trouble with being friends with a man like him.

He walks around the crater, glancing to see that Cabanela does follow him, and he digs into his pocket for a penny.

"Something on your mind?" He asks Cabanela, withdrawing the penny from his pocket. Cabanela's too quiet, and Jowd wonders if he should pry now. He doesn't have reason to, beyond curiosity and concern, but for those reasons Cabanela should interrogate him about his attachment to Lynne, his visits here and about Sissel.

"There's no reaaason for you to be attached to this park," Cabanela says as Jowd flips the coin into the fountain. "Except for ooone thing, but that doesn't prompt yearly trips here alone."

"You've been keeping count?" Jowd shouldn't be surprised, not when he knows how Cabanela works.

"I always keep my eye on you."

There's something going on here, Jowd thinks. Why is Cabanela here now? If he's been keeping track of these visits for this long, then why has he waited for the tenth year to ask about them?

Something jangles a bell at the back of his mind.

"There's only oooone reason for these trips," Cabanela says, and there's that calculating look. "Something happened here ten years ago. Something that changed your life."

He shouldn't ask how. He shouldn't ask why.

"Do you remember?" He asks. If Cabanela does...he tells himself that he should be more concerned if Cabanela doesn't remember.

Especially as Cabanela shakes his head, looking troubled.

"I don't remember what you're referring to," Cabanela says. "But today, as I was helping a little dog perfect his moves, a flash of something occurred to me."

"Something?"

"Something. A memory of a man in red...and my death."

"Sissel..." Jowd murmurs, mind racing back to that night. Had Cabanela been killed once that night? If so, was that why his friend was remembering even that much? He could think of a potential time for when Cabanela could have been killed, but there was no telling without asking Sissel.

"That kitten Lynne adores so much?" Cabanela looks confused, and Jowd almost smiles to see it. He doesn't like holding things back from him.

"It's a long story, old friend." He says, putting a hand on Cabanela's shoulder. "I suggest bringing a treat for the kitten next time you visit."

"What am I supposed to remember, Jowd?" Cabanela gives him a hard look. "I'd say that there's no chance that this long story isn't important, and friends don't let friends keep secrets."

Jowd's silent again, before he turns back to the fountain. "I suppose there's no harm in telling you... It won't undo anything. Do you remember Yomiel?" He asks. "It started there..."

\---

It's dark by the time he finishes, and cold besides, but they haven't left the fountain.

All Jowd can think of is his 'confession', and how like and unlike this conversation is to that moment. Cabanela hadn't believed him then, the question was: would he believe him now?

"It's a ridiculous story," he sums up. "But I can't deny that I remember every minute of those alternate ten years as if I had lived them. And Sissel..."

Cabanela flicks a penny of his own into the fountain.

"I belieeeve you're not feeding me a tall tale." He gives Jowd a slap on the back, and his next words are quiet. "I wasn't climbing the ranks for my sake, but instead for yours."

Jowd stiffens with shock. "Do you remember now - "

"Noooo, not a thing." Cabanela gives a little laugh. "I do know myself, baby. There's no way I would have abandoned you."

Jowd looks at him. "Then you were..." Information slots into place, and the events of that night are cast in a new light. "You stalled the execution by taking me to the Justice Minister."

"Lynne had new evidence that could prove your innocence. That's all there is to that, baby."

"As for why you were at that junkyard?" A loose end he had never gotten cleared up.

"The superintendent there used to conduct autopsies for me. A briiilliant man."

"I never thanked you for your help," Jowd says. "Cabanela."

"It was nothing, baby. I'd do aaaanything for a friend like you."

Jowd smiles, shaking his head. Perhaps it's wrong of him, and the place is wrong indeed, but Cabanela can forgive him: a quick one-armed hug. It means more than his friend knows, to be reassured that he wasn't abandoned for career advancement. Oh, he's known that it was unlikely, and yet...

"Thank you," he says, turning to go. "Time to turn in, I'd say."

He makes it only a few steps before Cabanela's long legs have caught up to him and before Cabanela wraps him in a hug from behind.

Jowd stops, closing his eyes briefly. What can he say? He's known that Cabanela most likely sees him as more than a friend, and he's known that they're never going to acknowledge it. He should probably pull out of his hold, and hurry home, but -

It's Cabanela, and he can trust him.

"You're welcome," Cabanela says to him, and then he lets go. Jowd glances back to see him straightening his sleeves.

"Want a ride?" He offers along with a smile. "A bike is no way to travel after dark."

"Yeees, I think so." Cabanela grins back at him, and they both turn to leave the park.

\---

It really doesn't have a bearing on their lives now, and almost nothing changes after he's told Cabanela what really happened.

However: Cabanela brings treats for Sissel when he visits, and elbows him about not telling him sooner so they could've been looking for the right criminal right off the bat for every case in the last ten years.

When Cabanela asks if he can go with Jowd on the trip to the park next year, Jowd says yes.


End file.
